


Day Twenty-five: Dealing with an Injury (AKA "Never Going to Let You Go Again")

by a_xmasmurder



Series: 30 Days of OTP: Bond/Q [25]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond - All Media Types, Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: 30 Day OTP Challenge, Flashbacks, Healing, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mission Fic, Morphine Bliss, THEY LIVE!!!, TW: Hospitals, The end of the mission, mention of drug use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-13
Updated: 2013-06-13
Packaged: 2017-12-14 20:32:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/841085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_xmasmurder/pseuds/a_xmasmurder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They've made it out, somehow beat the odds, and now they are recovering. Feelings are sort of discussed. Promises are made...and kept.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Day Twenty-five: Dealing with an Injury (AKA "Never Going to Let You Go Again")

**Author's Note:**

> Q's going to be the strong one again, and Bond's just too shattered to fight it.

Helicopter rotors.

A heartbeat. Slow. Weak.

“Don’t fucking touch them.” Russian voice. Spetnaz?

 

.........darkness.........

  
  


Jostling. _OhGODFUCKpainshootingthroughmy -_

“What happened?”

A hand on his shoulder. Light. Reassuring. “Calm down, sir. You are going to be fine.”

_That’s not what I want to know._

“Where’s -?”

A sharp stick in his arm.

“Where’s Alec?”

Darkness again.

  
  
  
  
  


The sheets beneath him were damp and scratchy. He blinked his eyes open, thankful that the last nurse shut the lights off before she left. His tongue detached from the roof of his mouth, and his brain took a detour from whatever he was going to think about to wonder what the hell died in his mouth.

 

_-“He’s not breathing, I need to intubate him. Make room!”_

_“This guy’s barely got a pul - whoops, there it goes. Start compressions, Hamilton!”_

_A cool hand on his forehead. “Hey there, mate, you are going to be fine. My name’s Ashbury. Mick. Just relax.” Off to one side - “Sam, this guy’s not staying under, we need another shot.-_

 

He took a breath. Throat's sore. Tubes in his throat, down his nose. His hands fisted weakly in the sheets.

**Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.**

No one was here with him. He could cry. But why would he cry? A tear rolled down his cheek. He couldn’t focus on what happened, just snatches of memories. Where were they? _I'm crying for them,_ he thought.

The soft beeping of the machines lulled him to sleep again.

  
  
  
  
  


_-“Both options suck. Flip for it?” Alec’s grinning like a fool._

_“Oh, for the love of - Can we just...”_

_“Yes, we are! We are just. Aha! Heads, plan numero uno. Tails, dos. Call it.” A glint of silver in the rear view mirror._

_“Heads.” Q and Bond said at the same time._

_“Oh God, save me, y-you people are mad.” Yes we are, Crabb. That’s why England loves us._

_“And it is tails!”_

_“Damn it all. I still like the first plan better.”_

_“So do I.”_

_“S-so which one are we d-d-doing, mates?” Crabb’s moving up...shit, keep him down!_

_Glass is flying everywhere. Crabb’s on the ground. Shit._

_“Fuck! Go! Just fucking go! Crabb? Crabb, you still here?”-_

 

**Beep-beep-beep-beep-**

 

Not a dream. Memory.

Tel Aviv.

 

_-“Fuckers got a car, James, go faster!” The bolt on Alec’s gun locks open on empty. “Faster!”_

_“Trying!”-_

 

They were escaping from someone.

 

**Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep-**

 

_-Ungodly pain, numb fingers, can’t grip anything, fuck, going to die, can’t -_

_“Alec! Alec! Get up here and take over. James just got hit.”-_

 

His eyes flew open, and there’s a hand on his. Soft, save for dry skin on the pads of the fingers and a callus on the side of the right ring finger. Feminine hands, long fingers.

He tried to say her name, but it’s lost on a cough that made pain shoot through him, and he falls back under, only this time there is only darkness to meet him.

  
  
  
  
  


He opened his eyes again, and there’s a hand on his. Soft, save for dry skin on the pads of the fingers and a callus on the side of the right ring finger. Feminine hands, long fingers.

Slight callus on the right and left index finger. Different hands. Kinder hands. Killer's hands. This woman killed him, but only to resurrect him. Not the first woman. Who was the first woman? 

He knew this woman, though, and tried to say her name.

“Hold on, let me get you a drink of water, James.” Eve reached over and there’s a straw against his cracked lips, and he’s got cool water in his mouth. He swallowed, and groaned with relief.

After a moment, the straw disappeared, and Eve’s there, her hand on his again. He tried to smile at her. “Thank you.”

“Any time, James.” She smiled back at him, and it reached her chocolate eyes somehow. Her soft skin, so soft against his. Morphine bliss. He blinked at her.

 

_-Alec lowers Evan down onto him, the sudden burst of pain shooting through his body. Evan is crying now, whimpering and whispering uselessly and shaking, shaking with pain and fear and exhaustion. His hand immediately goes to the hacker’s hair, smoothing and reassuring him. “It’s almost over, love. Don’t worry, just close your eyes. You are such a good man, I love you so much...close your eyes, don’t cry, please don’t cry...I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you, I love you. I love you, I’m sorry. You belong here, at my side. I love you.-_

 

“Evan?” His heart kicked painfully, because he knew that Q’s heart had stopped on the helicopter. He remembered. He just didn’t know if -

 

**Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep -**

“He’s fine. He’s down the hall, and you will be waiting until you can get out of bed and move around before you can see him.”

 

**Beepbeep-beep-beep. Beep. Beep.**

“Oh, thank fuck.” The expletive felt good coming out of his mouth, except it didn’t come out of his mouth, and now he is just confused. Fucking morphine. He turned his head, wincing as stiff muscles pulled and stretched and complained.

Alec stood at the door, arms folded over his chest and the most relieved and exhausted expression ever in the history of expressions spread across his haggard face. “You’re awake.” This time it didn’t sound like it came from him, and he’s glad.

“Sorry.”

“You can quit with the apologies, mate.” Alec slid away from the doorframe and walked to his side, brushed a cool hand against his forehead. “How are you feeling?”

“Fixed my lung?” Fuzzy, his brain was going fuzzy, and he could taste bitter almonds. “Did I break my tooth?” If he did, he’s in Heaven and these are his angels. “Why don’t you two have wings?” Fucking morphine...he rolled his head back over and peered blearily at the I.V. tree, and saw the automatic drip for the morphine. It’s moving, pushing more in...”Fuckin’ morphine is making me taste funny.”

Alec started laughing in a hiccuping sort of way, and his cheeks were wet. Why? He wanted to ask, but then he decided sleeping is a better idea.

  
  
  
  
  
  


“What day is it?” He blinked up at Eve, and she glanced up, then back down at her tablet.

“Thursday. Why?”

James tested his lung capacity with a deep breath, delighted that there was very little pain. Granted, that could be the oral morphine - and thank God for getting off the automatic drip because he was tired of Alec making fun of him every time he said that the grape gelatin tasted like purple and he could finally fucking think clearly - but he didn’t think so. “I’ve been here a while.”

“Yes.” Eve set the tablet down and smiled at him. “Do you want to try getting up?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“You actually do, this time.”

Bond swallowed. Something was missing. “When did they take out the suction tube?”

“While you were asleep three days ago. You just didn’t notice.”

“Apparently.” He winced. “At least I can swallow without something in my throat.”

Eve laughed. “And if Alec were here, that would have been a prime target for a joke.”

“Yes.” James tossed the call button onto his side table and pressed the right combination of buttons on the side of the bed to damn near dump his broken arse out on the floor. Eve laughed at him as he struggled to lower the legs again and lift the head higher, finally just giving up and swinging his legs over the edge. “Don’t fucking laugh at me.”

“Normally, you are better at this.” She hid her grin behind her hand. He knew it was there.

“We aren’t at Medical. I can work their beds better. Give me a hand.” He held out one arm and Eve moved around to support him as he pushed to his feet and wobbled. “Moment. Dizzy.”

“Yep, whenever you are ready.”

The door opened, and Alec poked his head in. “Put him in a fucking wheelchair, Moneypenny, or you will have me to answer to.”

James looked up and flipped two fingers at his best friend.

 

_-a light brush of lips on his brow, he looks up at Alec. Dead eyes stare back, wet with unshed tears. Evan’s against his chest, heart fluttering and skin cold. He’s shivering. “I’m sorry, Evan, I promised I’d get you home, I’m so sorry. Don’t worry, everything will be just fine. Close your eyes...” He stares into Alec’s eyes, willing them to brighten again. “I love you so much. You are perfect in every way. You are my life.” He’s not sure who he’s talking to anymore-_

 

“Fuck off, Alec. I can walk.”

“Yeah, to the lavatory. That’s as far as your arse is going to be walking today. Wheelchair under your own power, or wheelchair that I put you in. Your choice.”

James sighed. “Fine. Go ahead and try to put me in a wheelchair, Alec.”

“Oh, this should be good,” Eve muttered.

  
  
  
  
  
  


“So then Alec sort of just picks James up and deposits him in the chair, and all the while -” Eve takes a halting breath, trying not to spill her Coke while laughing so hard through the story- “all the while, James is trying to _bite him_ because he can’t throw a decent punch with either hand because he slept funny on his right side and his left arm is numb for some reason!”

Q giggles breathlessly, curling up slightly in the bed. “You have got to be kidding.”

“No. James _dared_ him to put him in a wheelchair, so of course Alec did!”

James is in the wheelchair. He’s next to Q’s bed. He’d trying really hard not to get up and walk out of the fucking room because Q looks so bloody _tiny_ , pale and draped in that ridiculous hospital gown, a small plaster on his forehead barely covering a wicked looking bruise...and a lump on his side that Bond knew was padding for that...fucking...He squeezed his eyes shut against a flood of hateful thoughts. _I’m a hazard. Alec is a hazard. Damn it. Damn it! MI6 is a hazard..._

 

_\- Q’s crying, still crying, silent and trying to suck in air without jostling him. They can hear the men surrounding the vehicle. He’s trying to play dead, trying to signal to Q that he should too, he wouldn’t know what to do, damn it, he could fake it..._

_“Get those two as well.”_

_“Don’t fucking touch them,” Alec growled. A huge Palestinian has the agent by the throat, one giant arm trapping both of Alec’s behind him. “Don’t fucking touch them!”_

_An arm reaches in, and Q suddenly lashes out with a knife - where the fuck did he get that? - and slashed the man across the chest. Hot blood arced out of the wound, splashing against Q, James, the seats -_

_A guttural scream, and then Q’s jerked bodily out of the SUV, his high pitched scream cut off by a fist to the bullet wound in his side. Unconscious. Good. Oh, good. He won't feel it then._

_Helicopter rotors throb above them, and a rocket whizzes past to blow the engine of the deuce in a half. -_

 

“Is something wrong, James?”

He opened his eyes again, and they are staring at him. He tasted blood in his mouth, and for a moment he’s bleeding out on the floorboards again and begging with the last of his energy for the gods of war to spare his lovely little Quartermaster. He shook away the black jolt of agony sparking in his brain and took a breath. “Fine. I’m fine. Just...thinking.”

“Ah, James? Thinking for you, after a mission that went sideways, is not a good thing.” Alec stepped forward and took Eve by the hand. “We are going to go grab something to eat at the new steakhouse down the road.” He looked at James. His eyes were bright and alive. Happy.  _Glad we are alive._

“Alright.” _Because I can do this. I can let Q go. I need to._ He nodded and takes Q’s hand in his own, the one that wasn’t busy texting someone at TSS. Eve and Alec walked out, shutting the door behind them, and then it was just James and Q. He breathed at Q. He blinked at Q. Everything he wanted to say lodged in his throat, in his chest, in his heart.

"How can you type so fast with one bloody thumb?"

_You are my bomb. I can’t work with you out there. I can’t do this. I can’t love you and keep you save. I can’t protect you while on a mission. You will die, and I can’t do anything about it because I’m the lowest of the low. I love going out there and getting shot up, because it’s what I do, and I do it well. I have a job to do, and you do too. You can’t afford to have me sniffing around you and I’m a creature of habit. I will leave you behind and destroy you and -_

“I’m not breaking up with you, James.”

James couldn’t help it; he started to laugh, bitter peals of too-sharp and too-loud noise pushing out of his chest. “Mind reader. Yes you are.”

“Nope.” Q looked back up, and if he’d been standing there at the side of the hospital bed instead of sitting in a fucking wheelchair, he would have taken a step back. The fire in Q’s eyes was there; hot embers that flared to life as he set down the phone. “We’ve been put on a mandatory leave. We are going to your grave, James. You and I and Alec. Maybe even Eve, if I can convince M to let her go for a month. We are leaving as soon as we are both on our feet and walking more than the length of the hallway out there.”

James leaned forward to interrupt, but Q held up one frail - _no, strong_ \- hand. “Shut up, you insufferable idiot. You are listening to me, now.”

James nodded.

“I’m not letting the best fucking thing that has ever happened to me slip through my fingers.” Q took a breath. “Yes. I got hurt. Almost died -”

“You _did_ die, idiot.”

“I didn’t stay dead, did I?” Q looked him straight in the eyes. James had to concede the point. “Now, for the love of God, shut up and let me talk.”

“Fine.” James looked away, to the window overlooking the lower roof of one of the wings at the hospital. “Where are we?”

Q groaned, exasperated, but then smiled. “Idiot. You just can't...I’m not sure. Could be Germany.” He picked up his phone. “We are going on a vacation, and then we are going back to work. You will be an agent, I will be your Quartermaster. Do you understand?”

“Yeah.”  _No._

“James.”

“What?” He stared at the skylight on the roof. He imagined how much brute strength it would take to break through that glass if there were an emergency.

“Look at me.”

“Why? You’ve got your mind made up. We will go.”

“You are not going to leave me behind.”

The agent’s head snapped back to stare at Q. “What the fuck?”

The soft smile on Q’s lips said it all. “I’ve been thinking about it too, and I can’t come up with a good enough reason to leave you alone. Let me count the reasons why you and I should stick with this.” He held up a hand, fingers splayed. “One.” He dropped his pinky. “You are dangerous. So am I. Together, we can take over the fucking world, and that’s just on a Monday. They should be glad we are on the good guy’s side. Two.” Ring finger now, and James had to wonder what a silver band would look like on it. “You are fucking amazing in bed. Like, a literal _god_. You are better than every bloody person I’ve ever been with, and that includes my utterly amazing dildo.”

James snorted, remembering the night Q had compared his size to that thing over a bottle of Russian Standard and a very, very highly illicit and unadvisable joint that Q'd gotten from one of his clubbing friends. _God, if M ever found out about that..._ Q smile turned even warmer.

“Three.” The middle finger went down next. “I don’t plan on leaving Q Branch ever again, but if I do, I will be wearing body armour and carrying a rocket propelled grenade launcher, no questions asked. Four.” Index finger next. “I love curling up with you on Movie Nights, and you know the best Chinese places. And finally, the fifth reason.” He completed the fist. “You are my raccoon, and my suicide pill, and my gun, and I’ll be _damned_ if I’m ever letting you go. I love you, and you love me, and we should be together.”

The nearly suffocating weight in James’ chest tightened like a noose. “I’m going to die. There is no retirement for me.”

“That’s fine.” Q waved his hand, dismissing that. “We will deal with that when it happens. Until then, I will be there, in your ear, keeping it from happening too soon. And when you come home, I will be the one in your bed, whispering in your ear as you fuck me into the mattress.”

And just like that, James was out of the hateful wheelchair and on the hospital bed, suddenly grateful for the length of the I.V. line as he covered Q’s mouth with his own. He wanted to lay down, to press himself against the maniac beneath him, but he couldn’t. He growled into Q’s mouth in frustration, then in pleasure as Q’s hands smoothed up his hospital gown and over his bared back, pressing lightly on the edges of the bandage covering the wound that almost killed him again. They broke from the kiss, breathing into each other, existing in each other’s spaces.

“I fucking love you, Evan. I love you. Oh, fuck, I love you.” _There won’t be enough time to tell you how much you mean to me._

“I know.” Q’s eyes crinkled into a smile that his slack mouth couldn’t replicate because mouths just don’t stretch that wide, unless you are Steven Tyler.

“I’m really glad you aren’t Steven Tyler, love.”

Q blinked up at him. “And I’m saving that non-sequitur for a really drunk night.”

“Oh, God, get me off this _fucking_ medication!” James dropped his head to Q’s shoulder and laughed. Oh, did he laugh. Q giggled softly.

_All is right with the world once more._

“Stay with me?” Q whispered into his ear, and caressed James’ hip.

“Always.”

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for sticking through this with me. I'm terribly sorry for the damage I've caused. I know I killed some people...
> 
> Um, I fixed it?
> 
> *P.S. there will most likely be a side story going up with the outcome of their 'vacation' :D


End file.
